By REBEKAH DENN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

One of the town's claims to fame is the Pilchuck Glass School founded by Dale Chihuly in 1971, a haven of light-filled cedar and fir buildings on a 54-acre campus in the middle of a tree farm.

In summer months, about 250 students from around the world pass through, learning cutting-edge techniques for working with glass.

The 1,600-degree ovens were at work even deep into the school's off-season, with artist-in-residence William Martin heating and snipping and shaping a mirror-smooth crow perched on top of a darkly patterned glass vessel.

In the school's cold-working studio for grinding and etching and other finishing touches, worker Rik Allen says the school offers a wealth of techniques and ideas that he never could have sampled working at a single studio.

The Pilchuck School has attracted a growing artists' community to Stanwood and Camano Island in recent years.